President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a policy briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Jan. 9. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that Japan's moves to bolster its defense capabilities are hard to stop in the face of the threat of North Korea's missiles.

Yoon made the remark during a joint policy briefing from the foreign and defense ministers, referring to Japan's recent increase in its defense budget and its inclusion of the "counterstrike" concept in its revised security documents.

"We can wonder how a country adopting a pacifist constitution can do such things, but if there are missiles flying over their heads and the possibility of a nuclear strike, it's not easy to stop," he said during the meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.

"Japan increased its defense budget because there are IRBMs flying over their heads, and decided to include the so-called 'counterstrike' concept in its defense plan," he said, referring to intermediate-range ballistic missiles that North Korea fired over Japan. "How can anyone take issue with that?"

Yoon also stressed the need to respond firmly to North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations, saying the most important component of the "three-axis" deterrence system is the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR), an operational plan to incapacitate the North Korean leadership in a major conflict.

"We have to deter the mind for provocations by firmly establishing the KMPR," he said. "Firmly building a KMPR capability that allows us to strike back 100 times or 1,000 times more if we are attacked is the most important method for preventing attacks."

Yoon also mentioned the possibility of South Korea's own nuclear armament, saying that if North Korea's provocations intensify, "The Republic of Korea could deploy tactical nuclear weapons or possess its own nukes." (Yonhap)